City council to consider different approaches to strategic planning

KINGSTON – A pair of city councillors are calling for a longer, more in-depth approach to city council’s strategic planning process.

For the past two terms of council, among the first major tasks presented to the new council has been compiling a list of big picture goals and priorities it would try to tackle in the next four years.

Three evening meetings in the last week of March have been set aside for the process this time, but Meadowbrook-Strathcona District Coun. Jeff McLaren said he wants the process to be more inclusive.

In a motion to be presented to council at its Tuesday night meeting, McLaren is calling for the process to start near the end of February and include consultation with city staff, community and social agencies, and engaged citizen groups.

In an interview Thursday morning, McLaren said he is also seeking to have the strategic planning and priority setting process remain in the hands of city council.

“Strategic planning has to deal with where we want to be and it is different from where we are going,” McLaren said. “It requires a change in direction, which makes it an entirely governance exercise. To have staff manage the governing body is less than ideal.

“Continuing on with things that we have been doing in the past is not strategic planning.”

McLaren’s motion, seconded by Loyalist-Cataraqui District Coun. Simon Chapelle, is, in part, a counter to a request from the city’s chief administrative officer Gerard Hunt to hire a consultant to facilitate the strategic planning process.

City council’s previous two strategic planning efforts were both led by a consultant, but McLaren said he has concerns about the end result not reflecting what city councillors wanted.

Four years ago, he said, affordable housing was put forward as an issue that needed more attention, but in the final priority list, council committed to continuing with the existing plan. McLaren said the current housing crisis is, in part, the result of that disconnect.

McLaren said he was concerned that a repeat could happen if the consultant is given too much sway over the process.

“[The consultant] is an unelected, hired person and if she is writing it, or coming up with it or digesting it in any way, shape or form, that’s a problem with me,” McLaren said.

“This should be council led, and once it is devised, staff implement it,” he said. “In that process, we can talk to staff about what is possible and what is not possible, what is ongoing and what is not ongoing, what needs to be tweaked, what needs to be majorly redirected.”

There are similarities in the plan that McLaren, Chappelle and Hunt have proposed. It’s the time frame that is the biggest difference.

Both proposals would include a “SWOT” session to consider the city’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Hunt’s plan would mirror the previous two strategic planning processes and focus on the three meetings at the end of March.

“While the 2018 election campaign provided candidates with significant opportunity for public engagement on priorities for the community, council may wish to have additional public engagement prior to finalizing its strategic priorities,” Hunt wrote in a report to council.

To gather as many opinions as possible, McLaren and Chapelle suggest a month-long process starting with a baseline questionnaire to community stakeholders to gauge their thoughts, followed by interviews. Those ideas would then be presented to council for consideration before the priorities are set.

City council is to consider its approach to the strategic planning process on Tuesday.